Jabbul

Jabbul جبول
Etymology: possibly "Boundary"[1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Jabbul (click the buttons)
Jabbul Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°34′01″N 35°30′35″E / 32.56694°N 35.50972°E / 32.56694; 35.50972
Palestine grid	198/219
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Baysan
Date of depopulation	May 18, 1948[4]
Area
• Total	15,107 dunams (15.107 km2 or 5.833 sq mi)
Population  (1945)
• Total	250[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Secondary cause	Influence of nearby town's fall

Jabbul (Arabic: جبول), is a depopulated former Palestinian Arab village located 7 km north of Baysan. During Operation Gideon, the village was occupied by the Golani Brigade.^[5]

Jabbul stood on a hill on the edge of the Baysan Valley, overlooking Wadi Yubla to the southwest. Wadi al-Ashsha ran through its land in the south. A secondary road linked it to the Baysan - Jericho highway, and other roads connected it to the surrounding villages.^[6]

The site was probably known in Roman times as Gebul or, more likely, as Gebula.^[6] Roman and Byzantine ceramic remains have been found here.^[7] The Crusaders also referred to it as Gebul, which may have been derived from the Hebrew word for "boundary".^[6]

In 1596, Jabbul was a farm that paid taxes to the government.^[8]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described the village as being situated on low ground and was built of stone and adobe.^[9]

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the Mandatory Palestine authorities, Jabul had a population of 231; 1 Christian and 230 Muslims,^[10] decreasing slightly in the 1931 census to 218, all Muslims, in 50 houses.^[11]

The village had a circular plan, with houses radiating out from the village center. The houses were surrounded by farmlands. The entire population was Muslim, and the village had a small mosque with a domed shrine which stood at the south of the houses. The village also had a number of shops, however, it mostly relied on Baysan and the village of Kawkab al-Hawa for education, medical care, trade and other services. A spring to the east of the village supplied them with water.

In the 1945 statistics, the village had 250 Muslim inhabitants,^[2] and a total of 4,367 dunums was allocated to cereals, 5 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The elevated lands around the village were used for grazing,^[6][12] while 33 were built-up (urban) land.^[13]

On 7 June 1948, a platoon of Barak troops, commanded by Yitzhak Shusterman raided the village along with others in the area. The troops arrived by bus and took up position on a high point on the outskirts of the village and lobbed a few two-inch mortar rounds into its centre and then moved in and searched it. The troops encountered harvesters who ran off and "[...] opened fire but hit no [one]". Arabs also fled from the village itself and the platoon "burned their crops and set alight several houses".^[14]

In September 1948, Nahum Hurwitz of Kfar Gil'adi appealed in a letter for permission to destroy Jabbul, Kawkab al-Hawa, al-Bira and al-Hamidiyya in the area for fear that they may be used by Arabs for military operations and to enable them to "take the village's lands, because the Arabs won't be able to return there".^[15]

Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures of the village in 1992:

"The houses have been reduced to rubble and are overgrown with trees, thorns, and wild grass. The land around the site is cultivated."^[6]

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel

• Welcome To Jabbul
• Jabbul, Zochrot
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 9: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Jabbul, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center